Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Top Chef is one of my favorite reality shows. I just love watching all these talented chefs create dishes and fly high or crash and burn. The only thing I hate about Top Chef is it makes me wanna eat something after watching an episode. My favorite cheftestant right now on all Stars is Angelo Sosa and I really hope he wins. Sheesh! I hope I didn't jinx him.

Anyway, for the past three days I have been on a cooking spree. Not only a cooking spree but a SUCCESSFUL cooking sprees. See, I don't consider something I've made spectacular if the leftovers live in the fridge for more than two days.

So on Monday, I made an Asian style dinner with pork tonkatsu(which brought memories of being in Japan), warm Asian slaw and garlic "rice". It was such a filling meal and I just adore the tonkatsu sauce.

Tuesday had me hankering for more fried rice but this time I wanted the kind The Hubby and I used to make when I was still eating white rice mindlessly. We would go down to the kitchen at like 2 AM and make this fried rice and devour it. It's just rice with peas and corned beef, a touch of soy sauce for color and flavor. Since I had cauli rice left, I used that to make the fried rice. Then I wanted to put something very saucy and delicious and spicy on top. So I made Bicol Express, a local dish which is basically pork cooked in coconut milk with shrimp paste and lots of chilies. I wasn't able to find fresh green chilies so I used my chilies in oil. This was absolutely divine. The spicy sauce mixed with the "rice" was soooo good I almost forgot I was eating low carb.

First put the pork chops in a pot and heat it until all the oil and juices are liberated.Then add the coconut milk and let it simmer. Once the milk has reduced, add the chilies and shrimp paste and mix well. Lastly add the green beans and let simmer until the beans are tender crisp. Serve over cauli rice.

Since I wanted to push my luck, today I decided to go three for three and decided to make a low carb vanilla ice cream. I used David Lebovitz's recipe right here and since I didn't have an ice cream maker, I used the instructions he gave here. It took a while to make but oh my goodness, it was the best ice cream I've ever had... Seriously. It's so creamy and the flavor stays in your mouth even after the ice cream has melted.

The ice cream recipe left me with five egg whites so I decided to make Swiss Meringue Butter Cream which was something I used to make when I baked cakes. It's a very light frosting that involves making a meringue and then adding butter to it. I really love this frosting even though it's such a pain to make. I didn't follow a recipe because I've made this lots of times so I kinda know how to guesstimate.

I could type out the instructions but I don't wanna forget anything as this is quite finicky. So I will link to a video that taught me how to make it.

1:2:3 Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Now for tips... don't give up. My butter was being a little brat tonight and it didn't wanna melt and mix with the meringue. So I took the mixing bowl and heated it on my stovetop's smallest burner on its smallest flame for less than ten seconds. Then I started beating it again and the butter cream came together gloriously. I'm telling you, it's like witnessing a miracle every time I see butter cream coming together. If yours come out soupy, don’t fret. Stick the mixing bowl in the fridge for a few minutes then start beating again.

What am I gonna make tomorrow? I don't know yet but I'm kinda scared of ruining my streak. I have to be fearless!

Hi jaque! I love smitten kitchen! One of the blogs I follow. I've made a lot of recipes on her blog especially cookies and cakes. She is amazing and the pictures are delicious.Good luck with the sans rival! Take care!

Dee,The pork with the green beans and coconut milk looks delicious I would love to make it but i've never seen shrimp paste? Where do you think I could find it? Does it come in a jar? Or cubes? Thanks!

Oh it was so good! It usually comes in a jar but I read on wiki that they have it in cubes too. It's called "bagoong" locally and I bet you can find it in a Filipino Store (we LOVE this!)or Asian store.

Here's a link to wiki if it helps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagoong

And here's more info http://www.matthewbietz.org/2008/01/06/shrimp-paste/

Let me know if you find it there. I wanna be able to find it when I start living there LOL